NEWSWORTHY
Three who dressed as policemen in ¥750 million gold bar theft in Fukuoka get prison terms
A court on Monday sentenced three men to up to seven years in prison over the theft of gold bars worth ¥750 million ($6.8 million) in July 2016 in Fukuoka. The Fukuoka District Court ordered seven years in prison for Tomonori Shiraishi, 36, and 5½ ...
‘Punksters of food’ Gaggan Anand and Takeshi Fukuyama join culinary forces to create GohGan
World-class chefs Gaggan Anand and Takeshi "Goh" Fukuyama team up to launch GohGan, an exclusive space that will combine on-site accommodation with a restaurant, projected to open in 2021 in Fukuoka.
End of the road: Fukuoka man arrested over drifting videos on Instagram
A 31-year-old man in Fukuoka Prefecture was referred to prosecutors on Thursday over the sharing of videos of himself drifting on Instagram. His elementary-school-age son and others recorded the footage, police said. Drifting involves sliding a car sideways through a turn. The man in the town ...
Saitama city's Kaparu beats out organized voting to win grand prix title at annual mascot contest
Kaparu from Shiki, a city in Saitama Prefecture, won the 2018 Yuru-kyara Grand Prix (Soft Character Grand Prix) title in the regional division on Sunday. With the motif of the mythical kappa, or water goblin, the mascot for the city's public corporation to promote culture ...
The Fukuoka Municipal Government has issued administrative guidance to a Hilton hotel after it refused to accommodate Cuban diplomats in October due to U.S. economic sanctions.
Fukuoka enlists artificial intelligence in fight against organized crime
Advances in artificial intelligence have come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, prompting police in Fukuoka and Kyoto to look into ways of using the technology to tackle organized crime. The Fukuoka Prefectural Police in Kyushu face a particularly daunting task, with some ...
Buddhist temples in western Japan are becoming unlikely sites for entertainment, putting on 1970s and '80s disco music and planetarium shows to attract young people and regain their status as places for community gatherings. On a recent weeknight a huge glitter ball spun while emitting ...
Aging Japan: Unclaimed burial urns pile up in Japan as family ties weaken, kin steer clear
Unclaimed urns containing ashes of the dead are piling up by the thousands across Japan, creating storage headaches and reflecting fraying family ties and economic pressures in a rapidly aging nation. The identities of the dead, cremated at public expense, are usually known. But in ...
Located on the northern shore of Kyushu, Fukuoka is one of Japan's most vibrant cities: It is the fastest-growing city outside Tokyo, it has the youngest average population and has gone to great lengths over the past few years to position itself as Japan's ...
Japan facing customs officer shortage as foreign visitors surge
A serious shortage of customs officers for border control is being encountered amid an increase in travelers from abroad. As the number of foreign tourists is expected to rise further toward the 2020 Games, the Finance Ministry hopes to boost the number of customs officers ...
American DJ David Morales arrested at Fukuoka Airport for allegedly having ecstasy in carry-on bag
American DJ David Morales was arrested Sunday at Fukuoka Airport on suspicion of smuggling drugs from Hong Kong, local police said. Morales was detained at the airport after a customs officer found the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Morales is a well-known figure on the ...
Prize-winning Fukuoka dance team puts Kurume on YouTube radar
The Kurume Municipal Government in Fukuoka Prefecture has released a YouTube video featuring Kyushudanji Shinsengumi, a local boys' dance group that won first place at World of Dance 2015 in Los Angeles, to promote the city. The video, which shows the group in action at ...
